Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell Adventure

“The adventure of the hero is the adventure of being alive”
“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek."

Life
"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's."
“Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.”

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”
“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
“Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?”
“We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”
“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”
“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”
“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is Whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”
“Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends”One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.
“Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.”

Marriage is not a love affair. It’s an ordeal. “Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn’t that. That is a relationship of pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable , it’s off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you are not married.”When people get married because they think it's a long-time love affair, they'll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity. When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.

“The way to find out about happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you are really happy — not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what is called following your bliss.”
“When you follow your bliss... doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else.”
“Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”
“To find your own way is to follow your bliss. This involves analysis, watching yourself and seeing where real deep bliss is -- not the quick little excitement , but the real deep, life-filling bliss.”
“Any life career that you choose in following your bliss should be chosen with that sense — that nobody can frighten me off from this thing. And no matter what happens, this is the validation of my life and action.”
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls”
“If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”Love“Love is a friendship set to music.”

Religion/Mythology“A one sentence definition of mythology?
"Mythology" is what we call someone else's religion”
“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.”
“Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.”
“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.”
“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.”
“God is a thought. God is an idea. It’s reference transcends thinking. It is beyond being.”
“He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who doesn’t know, knows.”
“God is a metaphor for that which trancends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.”
"Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies."

Sacred Place
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.”

Hero
"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have one before us, the labyrinth is fully known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."

“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

Money
“I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.”

Joy
“Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.”

Experience“I don't have faith; I have experience.”
“I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”

Opportunities“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”

Beauty“As a white candle In a holy place, So is the beauty Of an aged face”

World
“When we talk about settling the world's problems, we're barking up the wrong tree. The world is not perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.”Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy."We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes."